LET ME START,

somewhat unusually, by talking about the last issue of Empire. Our celebration of the very best audience moments in the cinema, featuring contributions from 40 filmmakers and actors, all pulled together by Edgar Wright. It was, without a doubt, one of our most responded-to issues in Empire history: we saw a collective outpouring of love for the place that we all miss the most (the pictures).

When cinemas reopened briefly last summer, they didn’t just play the odd new film; they dug into the archive. For films that have a long legacy, a long line of love. Films that have always brought people together in tough times. In amongst them was the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, which even returned to the UK box-office chart.

Both LOTR and its spiritual kin in fantasy franchises, Harry Potter, were born 20 years ago. A lot has happened in those two decades since (including the events of the last year), but some things have remained the same. Our need for fantastical worlds that offer an escape to places far, far beyond our imagination; beyond the reality of the world in which we currently stand. That transport us to places of wonder and of, well (yes, I’m going to say it), magic.

The current-day resonance is clear and so it felt like the perfect time to revisit those worlds. More than that, wouldn’t it be wonderful, we thought, if we could even get the stars of those incredible series to come together?

It was a challenge that Elijah Wood and Daniel Radcliffe happily accepted, even though in Daniel’s case, he hadn’t talked about Harry in years. The resulting conversation with Contributing Editor Dan Jolin is funny, warm, fascinating (and yes, I’m going to say it again): magic.

Enjoy the issue.